


Unexpected Assistance

by sultrysweet



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Baby!Carter, Boss/Employee Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Romance, how Kara accidentally became Cat Grant's assistant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 11:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7682227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sultrysweet/pseuds/sultrysweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara's looking for an internship at CatCo, but things become much more interesting the instant Cat Grant walks through the door. An opportunity soon presents itself and Kara suddenly finds herself at Cat's--and Carter's--beck and call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unexpected Assistance

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how many chapters this fic will have, but I wanted to make sure I posted the first one before Supercat Week ended. The fic won't be done by this weekend, so I thought I'd act fast and get this started. Enjoy! :)

Inspiration hit her all at once as she stood in the CatCo lobby. Tingles shot down her body from her head to her toes and caused a smile to stretch across her face. It was only the lobby, only the first floor, but Kara was still in awe. She stood in the center of her dreams, something she’d imagined she’d aspire to one day, and there she stood at the heart of it all. The ground floor. The beginning. Although she was only there with the hope of landing herself a summer internship, she knew—she felt it—that she belonged there. She could do the only kind of good without her superpowers there, be a reporter and find the truth. Or maybe work in the art department and do layouts for the papers and CatCo magazine. She wasn’t sure what good she could really do with that, but art was a passion and she wouldn’t mind making a living using her creative skills.

Then there was Cat Grant. She could work her way up to be the next Queen of All Media, but she wasn’t sure that was her place. She wasn’t Cat Grant and she didn’t think she actually wanted _to be_ Cat Grant, but the woman was a role model for young girls and women everywhere. That was at least how Kara felt and she was sure she wasn’t the only one who agreed with that statement, but Cat Grant was Cat Grant. She was…Kara. She wanted to make a difference, but she was no Cat Grant. No one could be Cat Grant, except Cat Grant.

Cat Grant, who just happened to breeze into the building with sunglasses masking her eyes and a black blouse paired with a gray skirt that reached the woman’s knees. It was typical of the media mogul, but what wasn’t typical was the lack of an assistant at her side. In their place was a small boy. He had a mop of brown curls and big, brown eyes that he sleepily rubbed with the back of his tiny fist. The boy then squinted and started to squirm where Cat held him on her hip.

Kara didn’t spend a lot of time around children, but she was almost one hundred percent confident the boy was about to cry. Sure enough, he fussed and groaned a few times before, finally, he just lost it.

The cries were quiet at first, but they grew louder the longer Cat stood in the lobby with all the phone calls and chatter and strangers both employed there and not. Kara had no idea what had upset the little one and had even less of an inkling as to what might settle him down, but she wanted to do nothing more than help when she watched Cat start to bounce and sway him while she looked around the place as though she was lost. Cat Grant lost in her own building. That, just like the boy on her hip, was also unexpected.

“Shh, Carter, it’s okay,” Cat tried to soothe him, but she sounded tired and a little overwhelmed. “It’s just my work. No one’s going to bother you here.”

Public record revealed very little about Cat Grant, apparently. The boy in her arms had to be her son because there was no way that woman, as incredible as she was, would carry around someone else’s kid. Cat had far too much to do and usually—someone in her position especially—had a full staff of people to rely on for absolutely everything. No way in all the universe did Cat Grant run a daycare.

Cat’s son started to shriek and Cat noticeably flinched at the high-pitched sound aimed directly into her ear. Her arms tensed around the boy’s waist and back and the designer purse slung over her shoulder slid down her arm and dangled from the crook of her elbow against her childless left side.

Kara focused on the woman’s parted lips and wondered if the older blonde was desperate to scream, either for help or to just let it out. The reason didn’t matter. Kara didn’t have to use her abilities to know that Cat needed assistance, regardless of whatever Cat wanted and also refused to do. She only knew what she’d heard and read about Cat and doubted that the other woman would take kindly to a stranger offering to ease her burden, but she had to do something. Even if it wasn’t well-received.

“H-Hi,” she awkwardly greeted with a wide smile and rapidly burning cheeks. “Miss Grant?”

The other woman sighed and the boy flailed in her arms as he continued to cry. Cat shifted his weight to get a better hold on him, the little one slipping from her grasp with every wriggle and shout. “Unless you have an appointment, I need you to back up,” Cat growled. “He’ll only get worse if you don’t give him space. He’s not… He doesn’t like unfamiliar faces.”

Cat’s words were harsh, but the tone was not. The other woman was a tense, tired, desperate wreck and as rude as she seemed with her quick dismissal, Kara honestly didn’t think any less of her. All Kara thought in that moment was how she could make things better, easier, quieter without further upsetting a toddler that hadn’t seemed to get over the stranger danger phase of infancy.

“Is that, um, is that his only issue? Maybe he might…want juice or something?”

Another sigh and, suddenly, Carter wasn’t the only one that wanted to cry. Cat’s next words came out watery, ready to release whatever emotions the woman held back, but the older blonde flawlessly kept her composure. “He can’t be here, but I can’t work from home. I have a meeting in half an hour and he’s just… This isn’t going to work.”

“Oh-Okay,” Kara stuttered again. “Uh, I know he doesn’t like a lot of company and he’s probably overwhelmed by all the new people here, but could I- Would you mind if maybe I took him for a minute? He can scream in my ear all he wants and you can go to your meeting.”

“I don’t even know you. Why would I trust you with my son? Do you even have any experience with children? You’re in _my_ building, not some childcare center.”

“Right. It’s crazy. I know. I wouldn’t even offer, actually, but…you’re kind of my hero and I’d really like to give you a hand, if you’ll let me.”

The raise of eyebrows that arced over the top of Cat’s sunglasses seemed like an expression of surprise, but Kara couldn’t tell without her x-ray vision and she wasn’t sure what part of her statement would have caused such a reaction in the first place.

“I can…I can move the meeting to one of the conference rooms and you can keep an eye on Carter in my office. Just…don’t go anywhere else, don’t let him out of your sight and make sure the door to the balcony is locked so he doesn’t wander out there by himself.”

“Sure,” Kara nodded as she agreed. “Carter and I will be just fine.”

“He better be, or I’ll have you arrested.”

That made Kara a little nervous, but she also wanted to laugh at the absurdity. If one of Carter’s curls was even the smallest bit out of place, the other woman would probably skin her alive. It was a fiercely protective move as a mother and Kara admired that. She also added it to her mental list of things she knew about Cat Grant.

“I’m, um, Kara, by the way. Kara Danvers,” she introduced herself as she held out a hand.

Carter wailed on and Cat’s purse was one move away from dropping to the floor and creating a clutter at the woman’s feet. Kara almost retracted her hand as she watched Cat continue to struggle, but decided to use it to scoop the purse straps off Cat’s elbow. She set the purse back where it belonged on the woman’s shoulder and then held out her hands to take Carter.

Cat stared at her through the sunglasses and, through body language alone, Kara recognized the reluctance.

“You can take my wallet or my phone. Take it all if it’ll make you feel comfortable to know that I won’t run off with him because I don’t have my stuff.”

Cat sighed again and passed Carter over to her. “Fine. I don’t want to carry around your things, but it _would_ make me feel a little better about this.”

She smiled and awkwardly removed her own purse as she tried to get and keep a good grip on Carter.

Meanwhile, Carter wasn’t at all oblivious to the fact that his mother had almost completely let go of him. Cat only had a hand on his back to ensure the transfer of child and purse was as smooth as could be with the klutzy human-like side of Kara. It was the last thing Carter seemed to want because he pounded his little hands against her shoulders and grabbed at the ends of her hair, his legs all over the place and his little feet kicking against her stomach, hips and thighs as he wiggled around in search of freedom.

“I think there’s something in my office you can read to him,” Cat informed her. “Reading to him usually calms him, but then again it’s just the two of us when he’s read to. But it’s worth a shot.”

“Got it,” Kara said with a bob of her head. She wrapped her arms around Carter’s tiny body and held him against her front.

Cat guided her to the elevator with a hand on her back, just south of Kara’s bra, and closed the doors with a press of a button before anyone else could possibly approach. It wasn’t until the doors began to close as Carter’s cries echoed throughout the elevator and escaped into the lobby that Kara realized all eyes were on her. And right as the doors closed, only a small crack left with a view of the lobby, she noticed the difference between the elevator she stood in with Cat and the bank of elevators on the other side of the room.

Cat cleared her throat as they started to ascend but didn’t say anything. Awkward didn’t even begin to cover that moment. With another woman’s son crying in her arms—

No, it wasn’t just another woman.

 _Cat Grant’s_ son cried in her arms as the three of them rode in an elevator that apparently everyone knew not to use unless they were Cat freaking Grant.

“It’s okay. You’re okay, Carter,” Kara cooed before she could focus way too much on the insane situation she found herself in. “Look, there’s no one here. It’s just you and your mom.”

She turned so her back was to Cat and allowed Carter a straight-on view of his mother. It seemed to quiet him a little, but not much. It also made him reach over Kara’s shoulders for Cat, which Kara spotted in the reflection of the metal panels all around the elevator. She also saw Cat hesitate to respond to the ding of her phone. The other woman’s attention was mostly on Carter, but Kara could see the itch to answer whatever notifications popped up on her screen.

Kara started to rock them back and forth, a simple weight shift from foot to foot, as Carter whimpered and continued to reach for Cat. He opened and closed his hands as he reached.

“Could you…” Cat waved her hands when words failed her, the journalist—Queen of All Media—at a loss for words. “Could you read my messages while I—?”

“Oh, um, sure,” Kara agreed before Cat even finished the question. She wasn’t sure what Cat wanted to do while Kara checked her messages, but she was going to help no matter what.

Cat handed her the phone and, at first, Kara fumbled, but she looked at the reflection and watched the other woman remove her sunglasses before she grabbed Carter’s hands. The sunglasses were retired to the open “V” of Cat’s blouse while the woman played with Carter’s hands, made his arms dance. The sight made Kara feel as weightless as she did when she flew, which she hadn’t done in years. She missed it, but in that moment it was like she’d been flying for days.

Kara took a deep breath and looked down at the phone in her hands instead of the reflection of a sweet mother-son moment. “Um, the passcode?”

“Eleven-oh-nine,” Cat immediately answered. No hesitation and, from what Kara could tell about the directionality of Cat’s voice, the woman didn’t look away from Carter as she spoke. “It’s his birthday.”

“His- Today?”

“No, the passcode. November ninth. I don’t- I don’t know why I’m telling you. You’re not going to need to know it beyond the next twenty seconds.”

“It’s okay,” Kara casually assured her.

“I’ll probably have to change it now.”

“No, you won’t. Even if you never see me again, anything you tell me today I will take to my grave.”

“You could steal my phone, unlock it and use the information on it to destroy me,” Cat said with a hint of a threatening undertone. “Just unlock it and read my damn messages.”

“O-Of course,” Kara said and typed in the numbers. With the phone unlocked, she squinted and scrolled through the notifications. She didn’t know what to read or look at first. There were over fifty emails in Cat’s inbox and at least four texts. There were also links sent through private messages on social media and a few mentions on Twitter, which was definitely something she hadn’t expected. Cat Grant had a Twitter account. Two, it seemed. One for the company and one for herself. “So, what’s most important?”

Cat scoffed. “Honestly, _Kiera_.”

Cat reached over Kara’s shoulder for the phone, but Kara boldly decided to withhold it from her and opened the email app first. “Okay, you’ve got a bunch of emails. There are maybe five, or six, from Darryl Anderson. Another few emails from Kim Hayes. Any of those sound urgent?”

“No,” Cat replied as she retracted her hand and went back to giving Carter ninety percent of her attention. “Unless the subject lines of any of the emails mention the board, an award ceremony or charity event, you can skip it.”

The elevator stopped and opened to a packed fortieth floor that operated at a consistent noise level that sounded busy but not out of control. Before Kara could step out of the elevator, she noticed the sluggish motion of the employees before they all turned and noticed that Cat had arrived. Talk lessened for a brief moment and people kicked it into gear as they rushed around with phones or papers in hand, sometimes both.

“Anything else I might need to know,” Cat asked as she glided out of the elevator and across the room toward a glass encased office.

“Uh,” Kara hurried after her and Carter almost immediately started to cry again. Lobby volume crying. It was shrill and hurt Kara to hear because she just wanted to comfort him. “A few tweets about your latest magazine. Most of them are complaining about the feminist focus, but they’re probably close-minded people you don’t care to gain as an audience or following. I wouldn’t, if I were you.”

“That’s typical,” Cat waved it off. “What else?”

Kara looked around at the employees that stared at her as she followed Cat toward the office, but a “chop chop” brought Kara’s eyes back to the phone as she adjusted Carter on her hip. That move was a mistake, one she noticed instantly, because it allowed Carter more room to squirm and he nearly nose-dived in an attempt to land in Cat’s arms. Cat was too far away for him to be successful and her back was turned anyway, but Carter tried. He tried more than once, so Kara wrapped her arm more firmly around him and momentarily looked away from the phone. She even had to press the phone against Carter’s body when she used both hands to reposition him.

She stepped into Cat’s inner sanctum and freed the hand from Carter that held the other woman’s phone before she checked the text messages. “Um, there’s…a text from Maxwell Lord? Uh, I’m- I’m not sure I should be reading it.”

Cat stopped at her desk and turned to face Kara, a hand pressed against the corner of the desk before she cocked a hip and arched an eyebrow. “What does it say?”

Carter sniffled and looked at Cat with watery eyes. He had rivers of drying tears on his chubby little cheeks.

Kara had a choice to make. Satisfy Cat by reading the text or attempt to keep Carter calm before he let out a new cacophony of cries. He scrunched up his face as he looked from his mother to Kara and the choice was made for her.

She gently pushed the office door shut with her foot and pulled the phone up for both her and Carter to see it before she relayed the message out loud. She used a toddler-friendly voice as she relayed the not exactly toddler-friendly message. “Maxwell wants to see your mom again. He said he had a nice time last weekend.”

“You’re right. You shouldn’t be reading that, especially not like some bedtime story for my son.”

Kara chuckled and watched Carter reach for the phone with a curious expression. Even better, Carter made a few quiet noises and none of them were cries. “But Carter seems to like it. Look, he’s perfectly content.”

Her focus was so attuned to Carter that she missed the way Cat stood completely still at her desk. Cat stared at the two of them, entranced by the picturesque moment of a wet-eyed but calm Carter with a vibrantly smiling young woman who shined brighter than the sun.

But Kara didn’t see that, feel that, know any of that. She saw Carter flick his fingers over the touch screen and stare in wonder as his actions moved things around and made one thing disappear before another appeared. She saw a tiny Cat Grant in him, a little boy already so much like his mother as far as Kara understood the other woman. He was curious and captivated and liked it when Cat read to him, so he was probably smart, too.

“We’ve got the _Prince_ of All Media on our hands,” Kara said. “Bet you’re going to be just as powerful as your mom someday. And if she doesn’t go out with that guy, I bet you’ll be a heartbreaker like her, too.”

Cat’s phone pinged and Kara furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out what happened while Carter continued to play with the phone. It was a warning alarm.

“Oh, um, the meeting is in fifteen minutes,” Kara told her. “And…I don’t think you told anyone you’re planning to move it to a conference room.”

“Yes. I need you to send a memo to all the department heads and tell them to go to conference room B.”

“I- I don’t know—”

“They all have asterisks next to their name in my contacts,” Cat quickly explained.

“O-Okay. Do you…want to hold Carter while I do that?”

Cat shook her head before she answered, “You just calmed him down. If I take him now, even for a second, he’ll scream as soon as I leave the room.”

“Right. Okay.” It wasn’t okay. She was holding a toddler and needed to send a group text or email or some kind of mass message to a group of staff members. How Cat did it all- Well, she didn’t do it all. Cat had help, except for on that day apparently, which was why Kara had Carter in one arm and Cat’s phone in her free hand without a clue as to how she had wormed her way into that position. It wasn’t okay, but she’d figure it out.

She came to CatCo in search of an internship and, already, she felt like she understood what it would take if she worked for Cat Grant. So, she made herself comfortable on the couch between the desk and the door and settled Carter in her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, encircled him, while she looked for the asterisks and sent out a quick and professional message about the meeting.

“Alright,” Cat started to say as she walked behind her desk. “I’ll leave you with the tablet. My assistants use it to keep up with my itinerary and check in on rivalling companies. You can take pictures, send messages, run my entire day even.” Cat pulled out the aforementioned tablet from one of her desk drawers. “I’d prefer you use it to keep me updated with information on Carter if I’m away for longer than hour, which is entirely possible.”

Kara nodded, but didn’t verbally respond to Cat’s instructions. She continued to entertain Carter with the other woman’s phone and clicked open the camera since all the previous tasks seemed completed.

“The meeting might run late,” Cat added. “Or I might have something else I need to handle after the meeting. Do you have any plans for the day?”

Kara looked up from the phone before she was able to snap a single picture and frowned as she mentally went through her own schedule for the day. “Ummm, nothing too pressing. I guess.”

“Great, then you can fill in for my assistant. She’s fired. You’re here. Do you have a problem with that?”

“I…guess not?”

Cat placed the tablet on top of her desk and closed the drawer from which she’d retrieved it. She set a hand on her cocked hip and looked at Kara with an unamused expression. “Are you asking me or telling me, because I know nothing about your personal life, Kiera.”

“It’s…Kara,” she awkwardly tried to correct the other woman.

Cat either didn’t care or purposely ignored her as she continued on to say, “Are you available for the rest of the day or not? If you stay, I’ll need you until about seven o’clock tonight. You will be paid for whatever you do today, of course, and given an hour lunch break. If you’re smart enough, you’ll figure out a way to cram in a few quick snacks when you can. You might need them.”

“I—” Kara stopped herself and thought about her options. It was just one day, but it was an opportunity. She’d come to CatCo for an internship. She’d made sure to plan around a summer internship, but what if she impressed Cat? What if she agreed to be whatever Cat Grant needed her to be for the day? She’d get paid for the day and maybe, just maybe, Cat would ask her to help out for another day. Another day could lead to a week, to a month, to a year, to a job! “I’m staying.”

She was confident. She was willing. She had a kid in her lap and a stunning woman on the other side of the room that looked at her with what Kara probably mistook as a small, upward curl of rosy lips. There was no way Cat freaking Grant looked at her with a subtle grin, a _pleased_ expression, as Kara sat on the woman’s expensive, white couch in a beige skirt and pink cardigan from the clearance section of a discount store. Cat freaking Grant didn’t look at anyone that way, especially not Kara unimportant Danvers.

“If you’re sure—”

Kara didn’t realize there was more to Cat’s sentence before she cut her off with a definitive, “I’m staying. I want to be worthwhile.”

Cat pursed her lips and, for a second, Kara thought she’d seen the pleased grin spread a little before Cat had masked it. “Then you can bring me a latte in forty-five minutes. Noonan’s is close by and they sell a variety of food, so you can get Carter something while you’re there. No junk food. The worst I’ll allow you to give him is a muffin. Otherwise stick to granola, yogurt and fruit cups. Chicken or tuna salads are also okay.”

“Great. Um, am I expected to pay or is there, like, a company card or something?”

Cat narrowed her eyes. After a few seconds, she went into her purse and retrieved a credit card. Kara’s eyes slid down Cat’s body as the other woman strutted across the room in her three inch heels. It was a spectacular view, although Kara had never thought about another woman the way she seemed to think about Cat. And none of those thoughts had been in her head before she saw Cat walk into the building less than an hour ago.

She’d idolized Cat Grant over the years, but never thought about nimble fingers as they slid along the inner curve of a simplistic and large silver necklace. She’d never thought about how the other woman filled out a blouse with breasts probably no bigger than her own. She’d never thought about the staccato sway of narrow hips or the accent of smooth calves in those elegant and dangerously thin heels.

Cat stopped in front of her, her body angled toward Kara as she stood between the glass table and the couch, and held out the card. “Use it for anything else but mine and my son’s needs and you won’t be paid at all.”

Kara smiled and freed one of her hands before she grabbed the credit card with it and tucked it into her skirt pocket with minimal embarrassment and struggle.

“You can have your phone, but I’m keeping the rest of your belongings. I’ll need your number so we can communicate throughout the day. When you do leave the building, _just_ to go to Noonan’s unless I tell you otherwise, please notify me before you make it past the downstairs lobby.”

Kara nodded before she turned her attention back to Carter, whose face she saw on the screen due to the selfie-mode on the phone camera. His eyes were wide and his mouth formed a small but round “O” as he looked at himself on the screen. His cute face made Kara smile and she took their first picture together. She hoped Cat didn’t mind that there were about to be a few pictures of Carter _and_ the temporary new assistant slash babysitter on the other woman’s phone, and then made a funny face before she took another picture.

What Kara failed to notice, yet again, was how little Cat cared about who else was in the picture or that there were even _any_ pictures being saved to her phone without her permission. The woman seemed to find it hard to care about that when Carter giggled and flashed a toothy smile, his eyes and nose scrunched up in an overjoyed expression while Kara captured another photo.


End file.
